When news came out a few weeks ago that Anya Taylor-Joy was attached to star in the rumored Cameron Crowe biopic on Joni Mitchell, I deliberately didn't post about it because all the sites reporting about it seemed to simply be echoing it from one source. Not that I've shied away from posting rumors on this blog over the years, but I've learned that "scoops" from The InSneider should be taken with a healthy portion of salt.
That said, Anya Taylor-Joy is at the Toronto International Film Festival for the premier of her film Sacrifice. She was interviewed on the red carpet by ET and at the end asked about her involvement with the project. Starts at 1:04.
It's what Taylor-Joy did not say that makes me lean toward her likely involvement. I was reminded immediately of the way Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci reacted when they've been asked about the Devil Wears Prada sequel in the year or so prior to when shooting started. They give this sort of wide-eyed "I'm not allowed to say anything to confirm or deny this" look. If she were not involved at all, she'd just say "No" or "I don't know anything about that," while likely praising Mitchell and/or Streep. It doesn't guarantee that it's going to happen, or that Meryl will even be involved, but this reaction from Taylor-Joy speaks volumes to me about whether or not this is a real thing. Which seems more and more likely to me that it is. The news of Streep and Taylor-Joy is even on Joni Mitchell's official website.
Keeping a close eye on this of course.
Looks very promising. I love the idea of an unusual narrative structure on this project. It reminds me of Julie and Julia, an original take on an icon.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Mike. I'd like to see it a sort of back and forth between the older and younger Joni, versus just a chronological timeline where Meryl's only at the end. Sounds like from some of the quotes from Crowe that the script is not necessarily conventional.
DeleteI've always been reluctant to see Meryl Streep make another biopic. Most past biopics are so boring, and I don't want her to waste her precious artistic life. But after seeing the director's previous work, and seeing that he emphasized it's not a traditional biopic, I think this one might be good. Meryl loves Joni, and she must be very happy to be in this film.
DeleteI've always had a hunch that Meryl's involvement in Joni's biopic is real. Production Weekly mentioned it in 2023 https://www.reddit.com/r/oscarrace/comments/1ec3mv2/production_weekly_says_meryl_streep_is_in_cameron/?tl=zh-hans
ReplyDeletethe only actor listed on the cast list was Meryl，plus, Meryl is joni's friend .Last year, Meryl even performed at Joni's concert, providing backing vocals on stage. Normally, she'd sit in the audience, but her backing vocals were probably a way to gain experience before filming.
well, Joni's thing is a Joni Jam where she has her friends join her onstage, so I don't think it was necessarily related to the movie
DeleteI'll be more interested for Meryl to inhabit new fictional characters instead of a biopic again. But then at this stage, I'll take anything she does.
ReplyDeleteMeryl’s most brilliant moments in The Iron Lady were her scenes playing the older Thatcher. I’m hopeful about this one.
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